LEROYPENNYSAVER&NEWS - SEPTEMBER 13, 2015
TheNorwegianFairyTale -TheGoodWife
byLynneBelluscio
There is no Jell-O inNorway,
although there isflavoredgelatin
“GELE” packaged by Freia,
which (if you read thefine print)
is ownedbyKraft Foods.
While I was in Laerdal, Nor-
way twoweeksago,wewent into
the grocery store to look around
and I foundorange, lemon, straw-
berry, raspberry, kiwi and cola
flavoredGELE. I brought home
some cola and kiwi and hope to
make it just to see what it tastes
like. (At one time Jell-O offered
colaflavored gelatin.)
The store also carried ready-
made gelatin which is sold in a
quart-sized box that looks like a
milk carton. I was told that the
gelatin couldbeunrolled and cut
into shapes like Jell-O Jigglers.
Iwas going tobring a boxof the
pre-madegelatinhome, and then
figured I’d never get it through
security. It would show up as a
possible explosive.
The grocery store also sold
molded gelatin salad with
shrimp, whole hard-boiled eggs
and a variety of vegetables. I
tookaphotograph,but chosenot
to buy it and eat it. It certainly
was an exampleof a “congealed
salad” that ispartofourSouthern
food traditions.
I also discovered that cheese-
cake in Norway is often topped
with a layer of flavored gelatin.
Iordereda sliceofpeachcheese-
cakeat theWestTelemarkMuse-
um.Although thegelatin topping
was a little like a Jell-O Jiggler,
it was pretty good cheesecake.
(The museum has a wonderful
outdoor working model of the
nearby canal, complete with
working flights of locks. Some-
one in NewYork State near the
ErieCanal needs to build one of
these! The kids can rent boats to
put through the canal and there
areboomsof logs that need tobe
floated through the canal from
one end to the other).
In the 1920s, boxes of Jell-O
included a small recipe leaflet.
They were printed in sets of
12. One set was a collection of
foreign fairy tales. The first in
this set was a Norwegian fairy
tale, “AGoodWoman.” “Farmer
Gudbrand livedwith his wife in
a lonely farmhouse. Everything
Gudbrand did, his wife thought
perfect. One evening the wife
said to her husband, ‘You ought
to take the cow to town and sell
it.’ Gulbrand took the cow to
town, but noonewouldbuy it. ‘I
shall take my cow home again,’
said Gudbrand. Returning, he
began to feel tired, when hemet
a man leading a horse. ‘I shall
nevergetmycowhome,’ thought
Gudbrand. So he
stopped and ex-
changedhiscow for
the horse. He soon
regretted his deci-
sion, for the horse
was skittish. So on
the way home, he
exchanged thehorse
for a pig and the
pig for a goat and
a goat for a goose.
Then the goose for
a rooster. But af-
ter a while he was
hungry andhe trad-
ed the rooster for
a meal. As he ap-
proachedhishouse,
he stopped in at his
neighbor’s house. His neighbor
chided him, and said that Gud-
brand’s wife would not receive
the news happily. “Right or
wrong,” Gudbrand said, “My
wife is so good that shewill not
say a word.” So the neighbor
followed the farmer home.
As Farmer Gudbrand recited
his trading, hiswife received the
news happily. When she heard
about the rooster, she said “You
are wiser than I. A rooster will
crow every morning at time to
rise.” “I have not brought the
birdhome,” saidGudbrand, “For
I felt so hungry that I sold it to
buy a meal, otherwise I should
havediedofhunger.”“Heavenbe
praised,youhad it tosell.Youare
here, and thatmakesmehappy.”
Gudbrand opened the door and
cried out, “Well neighbor, what
do you say to that ?” Gudbrand
then kissed his old wife with as
much pleasure as if she had still
been twenty.” And so ended the
story of theGoodWife.
Cheesecakewithpeach gelatin layer.
Gelatin shrimp salad for sale in grocery store inLaerdal, Norway.
ColaGELE.
